Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Hospice Ratings.

A. Information You Provide to Us

Account Information. When you create an account, we may collect information such as your name, email address, login credentials, and other account information.

Review Information. If you submit a review of a hospice provider, we may collect:

• your name;
• email address;
• relationship to the patient or hospice experience;
• dates or approximate dates of care;
• star ratings;
• written review content;
• photographs or other content you choose to upload; and
• information associated with your submission.

Reviews may be displayed publicly using your first name and last initial rather than your full name.

Provider Account Information. If you represent a hospice provider and request access to or claim a provider profile, we may collect your name, email address, information regarding your relationship to the provider, billing information, and information necessary to verify or administer the provider account.

Provider-Submitted Information. Authorized provider representatives may submit or modify certain information about their organizations, such as descriptions, photographs, contact information, services, service areas, amenities, and similar information.

Payment Information. Paid provider subscriptions may require payment information. Payments may be processed by third-party payment processors such as Stripe. Hospice Ratings generally does not directly store complete payment-card numbers when payment information is processed by our payment processor.

Communications. If you contact us, flag a review, report an issue, request support, or otherwise communicate with Hospice Ratings, we may collect the contents of your communication and related contact information.

B. Health-Related Information in Reviews

Hospice Ratings does not require users to provide a patient's diagnosis, medical records, medications, Medicare information, or other detailed health information in order to submit a review.

However, reviews of hospice services may naturally discuss a patient's health condition or care. For example, a reviewer may choose to state that a family member had cancer or describe aspects of the hospice care the person received.

Please use care when discussing another person's health. Do not submit unnecessary identifying or highly sensitive information about another person, such as medical-record numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, copies of medical records, insurance identification numbers, financial information, or other information that could create an unreasonable privacy or security risk.

Hospice Ratings reserves the right to remove or redact personal, health-related, or other sensitive information when we believe doing so is appropriate to protect privacy, comply with law, enforce our Terms of Use, or protect users or third parties.

C. Information Collected Automatically

When you use the Services, we and our service providers may automatically collect certain technical and usage information, including:

• IP address;
• browser and device information;
• operating system;
• pages viewed;
• referring and exit pages;
• dates and times of visits;
• interactions with the Services;
• approximate location derived from an IP address; and
• cookie, session, and similar identifiers.

We may use cookies and similar technologies to operate accounts, maintain sessions, remember preferences, understand use of the Services, improve performance, prevent fraud, and perform analytics.

D. Information From Other Sources

Hospice Ratings may obtain information from third-party and public sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), Medicare-related public datasets, hospice providers, and other public or commercially available sources.

Information obtained from CMS or another government source may be displayed separately from information submitted by providers or consumers.

2. How We Use Information

We may use information to:

• provide, operate, maintain, and improve Hospice Ratings;
• create and administer user and provider accounts;
• publish and manage consumer reviews and ratings;
• identify reviewers publicly by first name and last initial;
• operate review flagging and reporting systems;
• allow providers to respond to reviews;
• manage provider profiles and claimed listings;
• verify, where reasonably possible, that provider representatives are authorized to manage a listing;
• process provider subscriptions and payments;
• provide subscription features, analytics, and account functionality;
• authenticate users and provide password resets and account verification;
• send transactional and administrative communications;
• communicate with hospice providers about Hospice Ratings products and services where permitted by law;
• respond to questions, complaints, privacy requests, and support requests;
• analyze how the Services are used;
• detect, investigate, and prevent spam, fake reviews, fraud, abuse, security incidents, and violations of our Terms;
• protect the rights, property, safety, and integrity of Hospice Ratings, our users, providers, and others;
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
• comply with applicable laws and legal obligations; and
• accomplish other purposes disclosed to you when information is collected.

3. Reviews and Public Information

Hospice Ratings is a public review and information platform. Information you intentionally submit for publication may become publicly available.

A published review may include your first name and last initial, rating, written review, photographs, approximate dates or periods of care, relationship to the patient, and other information you choose to include in the review.

Please do not include information in a review that you do not want publicly disclosed.

Hospice providers with accounts may be able to publicly respond to reviews.

Although Hospice Ratings may investigate, flag, moderate, redact, or remove content, we do not necessarily review or independently verify every review before it is published.

4. How We Disclose Information

We may disclose information in the following circumstances.

Service Providers

We may provide information to vendors and service providers that perform services on our behalf, such as hosting, database services, authentication, payment processing, analytics, mapping, email delivery, customer relationship management, security, and technical support.

Depending on the Services currently in use, these providers may include companies such as Vercel, Supabase, Stripe, Google, Resend, and HubSpot.

These providers may process information according to their own terms and privacy policies and/or on our behalf.

Public Disclosure

Information you submit for publication, including reviews and provider responses, may be disclosed publicly as described in this Privacy Policy.

Legal and Safety Purposes

We may disclose information when we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to:

• comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request;
• enforce our agreements and policies;
• investigate fraud, abuse, security issues, or suspected illegal conduct;
• protect the rights, property, or safety of Hospice Ratings, our users, providers, or others; or
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Business Transactions

If Hospice Ratings is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or similar transaction, information may be disclosed or transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law.

With Your Direction or Consent

We may disclose information when you direct us to do so or otherwise consent to the disclosure.

5. We Do Not Sell Personal Information

Hospice Ratings does not currently sell consumers' personal information to data brokers or advertisers.

We also do not currently sell consumer contact information to hospice providers as leads.

If our business practices materially change in the future, including if we introduce a referral or lead-generation service involving consumer information, we will update our privacy disclosures and provide any notices, choices, or consents required by applicable law.

6. Analytics, Cookies, and Similar Technologies

Hospice Ratings may use cookies and similar technologies necessary to operate the Services, authenticate accounts, maintain sessions, remember preferences, protect the Services, and understand usage.

We may also use analytics services, including Google Analytics, to understand how visitors interact with Hospice Ratings.

Third-party services may collect information such as device identifiers, IP addresses, browser information, and interactions with the Services.

We may modify the analytics and technology providers we use over time. If we introduce materially different tracking or advertising practices, we may update this Privacy Policy and other disclosures as appropriate.

7. Maps and Location-Based Search

Hospice Ratings may use mapping or geographic services, including Google Maps or related services, to help users search for and locate hospice providers.

Your interactions with third-party mapping services may be subject to the applicable provider's terms and privacy practices.

Hospice Ratings may use location information you provide, such as a ZIP code, city, or other search location, to provide geographically relevant results.

8. Payments

Provider subscriptions may be processed through third-party payment processors such as Stripe.

Payment processors may collect and process payment-card information, billing information, transaction information, and other information necessary to process payments and prevent fraud.

Hospice Ratings may receive information about a transaction, such as subscription status, amount paid, billing status, payment method type, and transaction identifiers, without receiving the complete payment-card number.

9. Communications

We may send account holders transactional or administrative messages, such as account verification emails, password resets, security notices, billing information, and other service-related communications.

We may also send business or marketing communications to hospice providers where permitted by applicable law. Recipients may have the ability to unsubscribe from marketing communications. Unsubscribing from marketing communications does not prevent us from sending necessary transactional or administrative communications.

Hospice Ratings does not currently offer a general consumer marketing newsletter. If this changes, we may update our practices and disclosures accordingly.

10. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to provide the Services, maintain accounts, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, and enforce our agreements.

Account information may generally be retained while an account remains active.

If you delete a review, the review will be removed from public display. We may retain limited information or copies for a reasonable period when necessary for legal compliance, fraud and abuse prevention, security, dispute resolution, backups, or enforcement of our Terms.

Deletion of a provider account does not necessarily result in deletion of the provider's public listing, CMS-sourced information, or consumer reviews concerning that provider.

11. Account and Privacy Requests

Depending on applicable law and your relationship with Hospice Ratings, you may be able to request access to, correction of, or deletion of certain personal information.

You may also be able to modify or delete information through your account.

Requests may be sent to:

privacy@hospiceratings.com

We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests. We may retain or decline to delete information when permitted or required by law.

12. Review Deletion and Provider Listings

Reviewers may remove their own reviews from public display through available account functionality or by contacting Hospice Ratings.

Hospice providers generally cannot require deletion of consumer reviews merely because they disagree with them or because a review is negative.

Providers may flag content they believe violates our Terms of Use.

Hospice provider listings based on CMS or other public information may remain on Hospice Ratings regardless of whether the provider claims the profile, purchases a subscription, cancels a subscription, or requests removal.

13. Security

Hospice Ratings uses administrative, technical, and organizational measures that we believe are reasonable and appropriate to protect information in light of its nature and our Services.

However, no internet transmission, database, or information system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You use the Services and transmit information at your own risk.

If we become aware of a security incident involving personal information, we will take steps we consider appropriate and provide notifications when required by applicable law.

14. Children's Privacy

Hospice Ratings is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Public portions of the website may be viewed without creating an account.

Accounts, review submissions, provider accounts, and paid Services are intended for individuals who are at least 18 years old.

If we learn that we have collected personal information directly from a child under 13 in circumstances requiring parental consent, we will take appropriate steps to delete or otherwise address the information.

15. Third-Party Websites and Services

Hospice Ratings may link to hospice providers, government websites, mapping services, payment processors, and other third-party websites and services.

We do not control the privacy practices of those third parties. This Privacy Policy applies to Hospice Ratings and not to third-party websites or services.

16. CMS, Medicare, and Government Information

Hospice Ratings may display information obtained from CMS, Medicare, or other government sources.

Hospice Ratings is an independent service. We are not CMS, Medicare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or another government agency, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by those entities.

Government-sourced information may be subject to updates, delays, errors, or changes at its original source.

17. HIPAA and Health Information

Hospice Ratings is an independent information and review platform. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to represent that Hospice Ratings is a healthcare provider, health plan, healthcare clearinghouse, or HIPAA-covered entity.

Different privacy and security laws may apply depending on the information involved and how a service operates.

Users should avoid submitting unnecessary sensitive information about themselves or others.

18. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the Services, our practices, technologies, or legal requirements.

When we make changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date above. If required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent for material changes.

Your continued use of the Services after an updated Privacy Policy becomes effective constitutes acknowledgment of the updated policy to the extent permitted by law.

19. Contact Us

Questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices may be sent to:

Hospice Ratings
Boston, Massachusetts
privacy@hospiceratings.com